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As Columbus residents complained that their streets remained untouched after two snowstorms this month, a city plow operator drove up and down his own driveway as well as his neighbors’ in Pickaway County.

GPS data show that the city-owned Ford F-350 pickup equipped with a plow went from the operator’s driveway to his neighbors’ on Feb. 5, the day after a storm dumped 10 inches of snow on Columbus.

The Dispatch analyzed about 1.3 million GPS data points created by city snowplows during the two storms. The data show that on Feb. 5-9, city trucks spent more time with their plows down on streets and highways outside their jurisdiction than on residential roads. By that Sunday, more than a foot of snow blanketed some streets.

When asked about the GPS and sensor data last week, officials said some data from the $139,000 system are unreliable. The city is testing every sensor and has found eight on pickup-truck plows that are malfunctioning.

All snow-removal vehicles are equipped with GPS equipment and sensors attached to the plow and the salt spreader. Those feed every 15 seconds to a tracking system in the city’s “snow command center” and are supposed to tell workers there where the trucks are, whether they are spreading salt and whether plows are up or down.

“I think it will be a better tool once we get the kinks worked out,” said Patti Austin, the city’s planning and operations manager.

Data from that week show that city trucks drove nearly 14,000 miles with plows down on arterial streets, the city’s first priority during a snowstorm. They plowed an additional 2,300 miles on collector streets that feed major arteries. Those are priorities, according to the city’s storm plans.

But residential streets received the least attention — even less than streets that aren’t in the city.

Snow-removal vehicles drove about 1,720 miles on streets outside Columbus, including interstates, with their plows down compared with about 1,200 miles on residential roads, according to the data.

Austin said that most of the driving on streets outside Columbus that aren’t the city’s responsibility was plows traveling along interstates to get from one side of the city to another. But the city also has agreements with other local governments and the Ohio Department of Transportation to plow some of their roads.

She said the faulty plow sensors installed last year make it difficult to know whether the trucks were plowing or just driving, and the city does not plow any interstates.

In many of the data points, trucks are traveling too fast to use a plow. Trucks generally have to travel at 35 mph or less with the plow down, she said.

Most of the problem sensors are on pickup trucks because they are closer to the ground than on large plows, said Shane Mark, the city’s transportation operations coordinator. He said the city has ordered plastic tubing to insulate sensors, because moisture and debris have caused problems.

Plow operators and supervisors also were lax in testing the sensors before and after the plows were used, Mark said. That testing has resumed.

Austin said that once the city fixes the sensor problems, it will put the tracking data online for the public.

“We knew this was a year of testing the system,” she said. “We know the system isn’t perfect.”

The city is investigating one operator who might have driven a route without using the plow and is looking into at least four others after The Dispatch questioned where their plows had been.

One of those was on Darby Creek Road in Pickaway County. The data show the pickup truck traveling slowly in driveways with its plow down.

That same vehicle had an electrical short that could have affected sensors and was repaired after the storm, but Mark said he has to interview the driver to find out why the truck was in and out of nearby driveways.

Employees who use the pickup trucks drive them home because they do not stop at a command post before starting a shift, Austin said. The Department of Public Service has 29 heavy-duty pickups for snow removal.

It also has 56 large plows. The city wanted to have 70, Austin said, but the company it contracted with to provide the new snowplows went bankrupt.

Other city departments and private contractors also helped out during the two storms.

Austin said that, even if the city had its full complement of vehicles, it still doesn’t have enough operators to drive the trucks.

Mayor Michael B. Coleman will propose spending $2 million for snow-removal equipment in his 2014 capital budget on top of $2.8 million earmarked for new equipment in the Department of Public Service, said Rick Tilton, the department’s assistant director. The city council must vote on that budget, which has not been presented yet.

In the meantime, the city has changed its snow-removal plans. One new approach is to treat residential streets during every snow after arterials and collectors have been cleared. Previously, residential streets were plowed or salted only after 4 inches of snow had accumulated.

“If we’re really going to raise the level of service, we need to buy more equipment and hire more personnel,” Austin said.